With lyrics based on the Taoist guide to living Tao Te Ching, The Inner Light was written by George Harrison and first released as the b-side of Lady Madonna.

As noted by Ian MacDonald in Revolution In The Head, on 29 September 1967 Harrison and John Lennon had appeared on The Frost Programme to talk about Transcendental Meditation. The programme was a success and they were invited back on 4 October to take part in a further discussion.

Among the other guests was Juan Mascaró, a Sanskrit scholar at Cambridge University, who later sent Harrison a copy of his anthology Lamps Of Fire. Mascaró highlighted a passage within it from chapter 47 of the Tao Te Ching, which he suggested could be set to music. The original words were:

Without taking a step outdoors
You know the whole world;
Without taking a peep out the window
You know the colour of the sky.

The more you experience,
The less you know.
The sage wanders without knowing,
Sees without looking,
Accomplishes without acting

The Beatles all regarded The Inner Light highly, and it was released as the b-side of Lady Madonna in March 1968 - the first time a song by Harrison had appeared on a Beatles single. An excerpt from the recording also appeared as a transition, alongside Harrison's Here Comes The Sun, on the 2006 remix album Love.

In the studio

In 1967 Harrison was invited by director Joe Massot to write a score for his film Wonderwall, starring Jane Birkin and Jack MacGowran. The soundtrack took three months to record, during which time Harrison recorded a number of instrumental pieces at EMI's studio in Bombay, India.

He flew out on 7 January 1968. The sessions for the Wonderwall Music album, which featured local musicians, lasted for five days, at the end of which Harrison produced a number of further ragas for possible use by The Beatles. The basic track of The Inner Light was thus recorded on 12 January.

The song was returned to back in Abbey Road on 6 February, when Harrison recorded his lead vocals. He needed some encouragement from Lennon and McCartney to do this, as the song was above his usual range.

George had this big thing about not wanting to sing it because he didn't feel confident that he could do the song justice. I remember Paul saying, 'You must have a go, don't worry about it, it's good'.

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Latest Comments

Joseph BrushMonday 17 August 2009

The western music for Wonderwall was recorded in London featuring Clapton. On my record of Wonderwall I can hear occasional traffic sounds when I use my headphones. This song should have been a single with Across The Universe since both songs were worked on the same week and both songs contain Indian influences.

It’s brilliant song. I don’t know much about music industry or recording session. But listening to it feels like getting your soul cleaned. And it’s about Taoism. Guess what? I’m from China(well, I stay in China, never been abroad). Though I was not touched by the lyrics but the amazing automosphere it created in the first place. I was not primarily a Harrison fan, but he’s having me a bit more everyday.

And I love this site. I’ve been secretly hanging around here for nearly 1 year. It’s a great site, so much to explore. Thanks, Joe and every body.

In my opinion, even John or Paul didn’t write a melody as beautiful as George’s The Inner Light. It is SO Indian in style with its its pedal-tone chord and the melody gently rising and falling above (like a butterfly).

When released on CD (Past Masters Volume 1, 1988) it was given a new lease of life. The clarity of the recording brought out the beauty in George’s single-track vocal and the tabla playing on the track.

As a kid, I can remember buying the 45 single “Lady Madonna,” and being blown away with how unexpectedly cool this “B-Side” sounded. When I read here that John and Paul are credited with “backup vocals,” I had to listen to the song again, because I didn’t recall any “back-up” vocals. Sure enough, there they are, on the LAST line of the song “…Do all without doing”… putting a very nice Beatles “touch” on an outstanding, out-of-the-box song.

When I heard The Inner Light on the radio in March 1968 I was quit overwhelmed! Oh my good, one more genius in The Beatles! A kind of break through for Harrison as a composer. The sang melody is superb. It´s better than Lady Madonna. I think that In The Beatles last years 1968 and 1969, Harrison is a better composer than McCartney with this song, Piggies, Long,Long,Long, Only A Northen Song, It´s All Too Much, Something, Here Comes The Sun and I Me Mine.

I don´t give much for several of the songs by Harrison that you mention, Johan. The inner light, Something and Here comes the sun are as good as it gets. Only a northern song has somethíng melodically, but is ruined by the terrible production. Ian MacDonald praises Long, long, long, but that is one of the few Beatles songs about which he and I have different opinions.

I think McCartney wrote a lot of top songs in 1968-69: Hey Jude, Back in the USSR, Blackbird, I will, Mother nature´s son, The long and winding road (terrible production but magnificent song), Two of us, Oh! Darling, You never give me your money, She came in through the bathroom window, Golden slumbers, Carry that weight, The End.

Lady Madonna is good in my opinion, always liked that one better than Get back.

Yeah, Paul was a real slacker in 1968 and 1969: Back in the USSR, Get Back,Hey Jude, Let It Be, I Will,Blackbird, The End, Golden Slumbers, Helter Skelter, Mother Nature’s Son, Two Of Us, Carry That Weight, You Never Give Me Your Money, (the A side) Lady Madonna, and even this site’s much maligned whipping boy- Long and Winding Road.
True George really came into his own as a wonderful song writer at this time but give Paul his due. If you were really fair and objective you might compare George’s songs to what John composed but your track record indicates otherwise. Happy New Year!!!

The break through of The Beatles 1963 meant a new fantastic increasing tension-expressionism! and ended with mainstream superficial songs like Get Back and Let It Be. For me It´s tragic. Harrison, and of course Lennon, are heavier.
Happy New Year to you!.

Hi Johan. Interesting point. I’d never really bothered to compare The Inner Light (and George’s other great tracks from around then, Something and Here Comes the Sun) with Paul’s hits.
As Robert mentions, I think Paul still had it in him (Oh! Darling, Golden Slumbers (derivative as it is), Let It Be, Long and Winding Road (I still have a soft spot for this, having played accompaniment for it for my high school’s Chamber Chorale)), but I think George was finally being recognised within the band for his song-writing. He had been writing great songs for quite a while (eg All Things Must Pass), but they were kept off previous albums because of the Lennon-McCartney cartel* (how else can it be put? it wasn’t always George being bashful…)
*I’m not bashing the great and much lauded L-McC songwriting partnership, but I think it was at the expense of other great songwriters within the band. I think post-Beatles, George was the most prolific and consistently GOOD composer, though I admit that’s going to be a subjective assessment.

The Inner Light is my favorite Harrison song after Something and Here comes the sun.

McCartney thought Harrison should have left the indian style out. I would not go as far as to suggest such a thing, but The Inner Light could have become even better with a slightly different production.

Interesting. I thought the production (let’s be frank here, the “Indian production”) was perfect. Not sure what you had in mind, but I doubt westernising it would have helped. It is beautiful perhaps _because_ of its lack of western influence?

The personnel listing is incorrect sir. I am a student and biographer of Hariprasad Chaurasia and he categorically stated that he has never recorded in a studio with Aahshish Khan. Inner Light was released in 1968. The first time Hariprasad Chaurasia met Harrison was in 1974 IN ENGLAND when Ravi Shankar took him for the England/USA tour – the resultant album from which is SHANKAR FAMILY AND FRIENDS.

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